RealPlayer Cloud Goes Global, Now Sends Videos via SMS

After racking up more than half a million users in the U.S. and Canada, RealPlayer Cloud is ready to take on the world -- and is now expanding the reach of its cloud video solution globally to do just that.RealNetworks, Inc. announced Monday that its RealPlayer Cloud service is now available worldwide after clocking more than 500,000 users in North America during its first five months.

The cloud service is intended strictly for hosting personal video content up to 15 minutes in length, with 2GB of storage available free to all iOS, Android, Windows 8 (desktop and Modern UI), Kindle Fire, Roku and Chromecast users.

Calling it the "Dropbox for videos," the international launch allows RealPlayer Cloud users around the globe to privately share videos with friends and family, even if they don't have client software installed. Videos can also be shared more publicly via Twitter or Facebook.

While free users start with a modest 2GB of storage space, RealPlayer Cloud is also introducing a new "Refer-a-Friend" feature, which allows users to earn 1GB of additional space for each friend who creates an account -- and that person will also gain an extra 1GB as well.

Last but not least, iOS and Android users can now send videos via SMS text messaging in addition to email, making it easier than ever to share SurePlay-powered videos without worrying about formatting, encoding or other technical concerns.

RealPlayer Cloud subscription plans start at only $4.99 per month, and the mobile apps will are available in English, French, German and Spanish, with Italian, Japanese, Korean and Portuguese localizations promised for a future update.